Tatjana Angerer

Matevž Šmalc MOJ STRIC MY UNCLE

sklopu razstave Iz muzejskih zbirk tokrat predstavljamo zgodbo dr.

Matevža Šmalca (1888–1960), ki je izhajal iz ribniške vrvarske družine. Bil Vje prevajalec, esejist, literarni kritik, jezikoslovec, prvi tajnik Slovenske

univerze. Spomine na strica Matevža je za nas zbrala in zapisala njegova neèakinja,

gospa Tatjana Angerer. Ohranjanje spominov skozi osebne pripovedi je za muzej-

sko delo dragoceno, saj predmeti iz muzejskih zbirk s pomoèjo zgodb oživijo sku-

paj z ljudmi in èasom, ko so bili le-ti v uporabi. Pri dopolnjevanju muzejske zbirke

Šmalc so sodelovali: Marija Bavdaž, Andrej Šmalc, Ivana Dolenc, Mateja Šmalc in

Tatjana Angerer, za kar se vsem iskreno zahvaljujem. Vsi omenjeni so ne le pred-

metno, ampak tudi s svojim izjemnim darom pripovedovanja pomagali pri razu-

mevanju èasa in življenja ne samo v njihovi družini, marveè tudi v kraju samem.

In še nekaj besed o avtorici …

Tatjana Angerer je kot uèiteljica in biologinja napisala veè uèbenikov za biologijo in

spoznavanje narave ter knjig z izobraževalno vsebino, kot so: Vsak dan zdravilne

rastline, Èisava župa, pisana pogaèa in še kaj, Pismo naslednji generaciji, Okusni

letni èasi: 4 x 15 jedilnikov za zdravje idr. V njeni bibliografiji najdemo tudi številna

dela za mladino in otroke, med njimi naj omenim le nekatere: Pripovedka za rojstno

noè, Davidov pravljièni vrt, Od pšenice do potice.

Svoje spomine na otroštvo in starše pa je prviè strnila v knjigi Židovska 8, kjer je

opisala zgodbo hiše, za katero sama pravi, da so v njej shranjeni eni od lepših spo-

minov njenega otroštva. To je bila hiša v Mariboru, od koder je bil doma njen oèe.

Njena mama pa je bila Šmalèeva iz Ribnice, sestra dr. Mateža Šmalca, ki se je izšo-

lala za uèiteljico in veèji del svoje aktivne dobe službovala kot uèiteljica v Strugah.

V 60-ih letih 20. stoletja se je Tatjana Angerer preselila v Ribnico, kjer je pouèevala

na osnovni šoli. V tem èasu je spletla še tesnejše vezi s krajem in z družino samo.

Ravno v tem obdobju so se oblikovali tudi spomini, ki jih je strnila v prièujoèih

zapisih.

mag. Marina Gradišnik1

he current exhibition From Museum Collections presents the story of Dr

Matevž Šmalc (1888–1960), who was born in Ribnica, in a rope-maker Tfamily. He was a translator, essayist, literary critic, linguist and the first

secretary of the University of Slovenia. The memories of 'uncle Matevž' have been

collected and written down for the Museum by his niece, Ms Tatjana Angerer.

Preserving memories through personal narratives is very important for museum

work, as the stories bring to life the items presented as part of museum exhibitions

together with the people and the time when the objects were in use. Individuals

who helped build up the Šmalc family museum collection were Marija Bavdaž,

Andrej Šmalc, Ivana Dolenc, Mateja Šmalc and Tatjana Angerer, for which I would

like to give all of them my heartfelt thanks. Their contri-bution was not only in

terms of the donated objects, but also through their remarkable gift of storytelling,

which helped understand the times and the way of life not only in their family, but

also in Ribnica as such.

And a few words about the author...

As a teacher and biologist Tatjana Angerer authored several textbooks for the bio-

logy and the nature study school subjects, as well as books with an educational

content such as: Medicinal plants for Everyday Life, The Sour Whey Soup, a Co-

lourful Cake and the Like, A Letter to the Next Generation, Tasty Seasons: 4 x 15

Menus for Health etc. Her bibliography includes a number of works for the youth

and children – to name just a few: A Story for the Birth Night, David's Fairytale

Garden, From Wheat to Potica Cake.

She collected the memories of her childhood and her parents for the first time in

the book The House at Židovska 8, wherein she told the story of the house, which

she described as the house where some of the most beautiful memories of her

childhood were kept. This was a house in the Slovenian town of Maribor, where

her father was from. Her mother was a member of the Šmalc family from Ribnica,

Dr Matevž Šmalc's sister; she trained to be a teacher and spent the greater part of

her professional career as a teacher in the village of Struge near Ribnica. In the

1960s, Tatjana Angerer moved to Ribnica, where she was a teacher at the local

primary school. During this time, she established close ties with both this area and

her family. And it was during this period that the memories were made which she

collected and which you are now able to read about here.

Marina Gradišnik, MA32

Prvi del strièevega življenjepisa mi je povedala moja mati; približno takole:

September 1888. Pri Zalarjevih je zavekal novorojenec. Fant.

“Prišel je nekoliko prej, kot so prièakovali. Sam je kasneje malo za-

res in malo za šalo rekel, da zaradi prevelike radovednosti. Krstili so ga za

Matevža. Prvorojenec je takrat skoraj povsod v naših krajih dobil ime po

oèetu, prvorojenka pa po materi.”

Mlada mati je že nekaj dni po porodu spet gospodinjila, skrbela za

otroka in pomagala možu v delavnici. V letih, ki so sledila, je rodila še enajst

otrok, a preživeli so samo štirje: Matevž, Polde, Štefka in Tone.

Matevž je bil bister, zelo zvedav, svojeglav in trmast otrok. Uèitelji so

hitro odkrili njegovo izredno nadarjenost in slo po znanju in kmalu je bilo

tudi staršem jasno, da mora Matevž naprej v šole.

Sprva v gimnazijo v Ljubljano, a zaradi velike goreènosti za sloven-

stvo, naprednih idej in kljubovalnosti so ga po tretjem razredu izkljuèili iz

vseh avstrijskih srednjih šol. Zato je odšel na Sušak, kjer je zakljuèil gimna-

zijo in z odliko maturiral.

Prav tisto leto je za posledicami ošpic umrla šestletna sestrica Pav-

la, in Matevž, ki ga je njena smrt zelo prizadela, je resno razmišljal o študiju

medicine. Rekel je, da ga vleèe v raziskovalno smer. A gimnazijski profesor

italijanšèine in francošèine na Sušaku je odkril njegovo zares nenavadno

nadarjenost za jezike, in prizadeval si je tako dolgo, da ga je preprièal in

usmeril v študij romanistike. On mu je tudi utrl pot na univerzo v Firencah.

5

Tatjana Angerer

MOJ STRIC

Matevž Šmalc

Po prvem semestru je moral k vojakom, in ko je odslužil vojaški rok, je odšel

študirat na Dunaj.

Iz gole radovednosti; Firence je že poznal in hotel je spoznati še Du-

naj in Almo mater skoraj vseh takratnih slovenskih izobražencev, je rekel.

Takrat se je med študenti kot blisk razširila novica s francoskega

konzulata o možnosti študija francošèine na Sorboni, za kar je bila razpi-

sana štipendija. A treba je bilo opraviti preizkus.

Matevž je poskusil in ga briljantno opravil. Takoj je dobil štipendijo

in odšel v Pariz na Sorbono. Kasneje je spet odšel na Dunaj, kjer je študij leta

1915 zakljuèil z doktoratom.

Po promociji se je prišel spoèit domov in se spet sreèal z nekaterimi

prijatelji in znanci. Med njimi je bila tudi Pakiževa Mimi, takrat najlepše

ribniško dekle, je rekla moja mati.

Matevž se je do ušes zagledal vanjo in kmalu sta se poroèila. Ob ne-

ki priliki je smehljaje se rekel: “Mimi je Prešernova Urška, jaz sem pa po-

vodni mož.”

A njun zakon je trajal le kratek èas. Že po štirih letih je Mimi umrla.

Za tuberkulozo, so rekli.

Matevž se ni nikoli veè poroèil. Živel je samotarsko, bohemsko živ-

ljenje. Stanoval je v gostilnah in hotelih. V Ljubljani najdlje v hotelu Slon,

na kosilo ali veèerjo pa hodil v restavracijo Šestica.

•••

Iz uradnih podatkov o njegovih zaposlitvah in delu odseva njegov nemirni

duh in obenem tudi obseg njegovih sposobnosti in širina njegovega znanja.

V prvi svetovni vojni je bil ranjen in se je dalj èasa zdravil v ra-

zliènih bolnišnicah. Leta 1918 je bil imenovan za prosvetno propagand-

nega referenta pri Narodnem svetu v Ljubljani, že naslednjega leta pa je

odšel kot dopisnik v Ženevo. Tu je skupaj s sodelavci sestavil odprto pismo

na predsednika ZDA W. Wilsona glede Slovenskega primorja. Leta 1919 je

postal tiskovni referent pri Deželni vladi za Slovenijo, nato glavni urednik

Klagenfurter Nachrichten in urednik Draupost v Mariboru, bil je tolmaè

pri razmejitveni komisiji (Jugoslavija–Italija–Avstrija) in nato sekretar na

univerzi v Ljubljani, do kazenske upokojitve 1933 (zaradi podpore študen-

tom pri demonstracijah). Odšel je v Pariz in tam pri radiu Pariz pripravil

program slovenskih oddaj, pri katerih je bil urednik in napovedovalec. Po

rehabilitaciji leta 1946 je postal izredni profesor in upravnik znanstvene

pisarne pri SAZU, èlan komisij (terminološka, Slovar slovenskega knjižnega

jezika, etimološki slovar, Slovenski pravopis).

Sodeloval je pri angleški izdaji Julijska krajina za pariško mirovno

konferenco.

Ves èas je deloval tudi publicistièno: prevajal (predvsem za gleda-

lišèe), pisal eseje, komentarje in razprave.

•••

Veèer življenja je stric preživljal pri nas. In tako sva imela èas, ki ga je v

aktivnem obdobju za kogar koli od nas imel le malo.

76

Bila sem obremenjena, a obenem privilegirana. Pripovedoval mi je

o svojem življenju, o svojih pogledih nanj in pripoved je pogosto opremil z

originalnimi, iskrivimi in vèasih zelo zapletenimi domislicami, ki jih, žal,

ne znam ponoviti po njegovo.

Kar sem si zapomnila, bom zato povedala po svoje.

Prišel je praznih rok. Brez prtljage. Breme, ki ga je pripeljalo, je bilo v njem.

A o tem ni nikoli govoril. Èutila sem, da noèe, zato ga o bolezni nisem nikoli

spraševala. Bil je do skrajnosti potrpežljiv.

Nikoli ni tožil. Le roke so govorile. Kadar je bilo hudo, so trepetale.

Ko sem mu v sobi, ki je bila 'jedilnica za praznièna kosila' in ob-

enem soba za goste, za pregradno steno pripravljala posteljo, je nenadoma

rekel:

“Saj mi boš dala tiste rjuhe od naše mame, kajne? Tiste lanene, za

katere je naša mati v Lambergarcah lan sejala, ga potem sama predla in

rjuhe je tudi sama sešila. Le stkali so blago v Loškem Potoku. Štefa, tvoja

mama, jih še ima in mi jih je zmeraj dala, kadar sem spal pri vas.”

Vedela sem. Mama, ki je bila takrat dalj èasa v bolnišnici, mi je to

posebej naroèila.

Z eno sem pregrnila žimnico, drugo sem dala pod bombažno pre-

vleko odeje.

Zadovoljen je legel in z obema rokama dolgo gladil za moje doje-

manje grobi laneni rjuhi; a razumela sem. Na lanenih nitih so lebdeli ne-

zamenljivi prstni odtisi njegove matere, moje stare mame. Sicer vnet

zagovornik številnih novih idej je bil tudi zvest privrženec slovenske tra-

dicije.

Nekoè zveèer, ko sem utrujena od dneva sedla k njegovi postelji, me

je prijel za roko in zaèutila sem, da bi rad govoril.

In mi je kar zletelo iz ust: “Stric, jezikoslovec si, daj, povej mi kaj o

jezikih, ki jih poznaš.”

Oèi so se mu zasvetile, ozraèje se je zjasnilo od nekakšnega op-

timizma in prostor je izgubil meje; raztegnil se je v strièevo jezikovno ve-

solje.

“Jeziki so kot živa bitja,” je zlogoval. “Koreni besed so geni jezikov.

Ko zasleduješ korene, odkrivaš sorodstva. In ljudstvo, ki se je razhajalo, je

na korene besed obešalo razliène priveske, odvisne od znaèaja ljudi, od

njihovega razpoloženja in okolišèin, v kakršnih so živeli. In vsaka skupina

ljudi je po svoje izgovarjala glasove, jih po svoje obarvala in besede po svoje

naglašala. Tako so nastajali jeziki.”

Nadaljeval je: “Nekateri jeziki so samozavestni, zelo samostojni in

skoraj brez tujih vplivov, kot njihovi 'stvarniki'. Taki so najveèkrat prastari

jeziki. Na primer sanskrt. Pa tudi nemšèina,” je dodal po kratkem premi-

sleku. “Sanskrt je seveda nenadkriljivo enkraten,” je poudaril. Za ta jezik je

bil stric takrat edini uradni sodni prevajalec, mi je povedala mati.

Po kratkem presledku je dodal:

“Mladi jeziki so manj samozavestni, a veliko oèitneje kažejo

znaèaj svojega ljudstva. Turški jezik na primer je bojevit, srbšèina je

epska, najina materinšèina” – to je rekel posebno mehko – “pa lirièna.”

Obmolknil je in videlo se mu je, da je utrujen. Tako sva tisti ve-èer

zakljuèila.

98

Ugasnila sem luè, prostor se je skrèil v bolniško sobo in tiho sem

odšla iz nje.

Minilo je kar nekaj z delom, vsakdanjimi skrbmi in s težavami

napolnjenega èasa.

Takrat mi je veliko pomagal strièev mladostni prijatelj in naš

hišni zdravnik, dr. Janez Oražem.

Kadar sem bila v službi, je veèkrat veliko dalj, kakor je bilo tre-

ba, ostajal pri stricu. Kramljala sta v pristnem ribniškem nareèju in obu-

jala spomine.

Ko je nekega popoldneva dr. Oražem spet odhajal, mi je pri vra-

tih šepnil: “Pogovori Matevžu zelo pomagajo. Daj, izmišljaj si teme in

pusti ga pripovedovati.”

In tako so sporadièni klepeti postali bolj ali manj redni. A o sebi

ni rad govoril. Kar mi je povedal, sem morala z zvijaèami izvleèi iz

njega. Vse drugo pa je rad in vèasih zelo duhovito pripovedoval. Vseh

pogovorov se seveda ne spomnim. Številni so zbledeli in izginili iz

spomina. Drugi so razcefrani in nedokonèani; a nekaj jih je, ki so se

trdno zasidrali v mojih možganskih shrambah. Te naj zapišem.

Nekega veèera je beseda nanesla na slovenski pravopis. “Mar

niste leta 1950 vsi uredniki pravopisa kot skupina dobili Prešernovo

nagrado?” sem ga vprašala.

Zamahnil je z roko. O tem sploh ni hotel govoriti. Paè pa mi je v

zvezi s pripravljanjem pravopisa kot anekdoto povedal le, da so se dolgo

pregovarjali, kako bi v slovenšèini pisali 'abonma'. On – promoviran

romanist – je zagovarjal obliko 'abonman', a vsi preostali so bili proti. In

tako je obveljala oblika abonma.

“A penati smo potem v gostilni 'Pri kolovratu', kjer smo se sestajali,

tej besedi posvetili cel veèer in debata je bila izjemno duhovita. Skoraj

gledališka predstava,” je rekel in obraz se mu je razjasnil ob spominih.

“Pa mi povej kaj o penatih,” sem zamoledovala. “Zakaj ste si prav-

zaprav izbrali tako ime?”

“A veš, kdo so bili penati?” je odgovoril z vprašanjem.

“Vem, rimski hišni bogovi.”

“Premalo,” je odsekal.

“Bili so bogovi hišnih shramb, kjer so spravljene vsemogoèe zaloge,

in obenem so to bili tudi bogovi, ki so v rimskem templju boginje Veste skupaj

z vestalkami varovali veèni ogenj. A zdaj razumeš, zakaj smo si izbrali to

ime?”

“Po tem, kar si povedal, ni težko razumeti,” sem odvrnila. “Kdo vse

pa je bil – zraven tebe – še med penati?”

“Vseh ti niti ne bi našteval, ampak ti zagotovo poznaš biologa Pavla

Grošlja, profesorja Alfreda Šerka, dr. Janeza Pleènika pa Otona Županèièa

in Iga Grudna. Zelo pisana drušèina smo bili. V gostilni Pri kolovratu smo

imeli stalno rezervirano mizo. Kdor je prišel, je sedel tja in èakal, kdo še

pride. Prišel je, kdor je paè imel èas in željo. Danes ta, drugiè drugi.”

“O èem ste pa razpravljali na svojih sestankih?”

1110

Zasmejal se je: “O vsem mogoèem, o vsem, kar se je nabiralo, kar se

je nabiralo v naših možganskih penusih (penus, lat. 'shramba'). In to je bila

zelo pisana krama, èe upoštevaš stroke, usmerjenost in duhovno narav-

nanost èlanov, in še aktualna dogajanja doma in po svetu.”

“Pa ste kdaj kaj zapisali?”

“Le zakaj bi?”

“To so bili debatni veèeri za naš užitek, ne za javnost,” je pribil.

Tako sva zakljuèila za tisti veèer.

•••

“Ne prižgi luèi!” je zaprosil, ko sem vstopila.

“Kajne, da je danes polna luna,” je napol vprašal, napol ugotovil.

Sploh ni èakal odgovora.

“Èutim jo,” je rekel. “Zmeraj jo èutim.”

Pogledala sem na koledar in z zaèudenjem ugotovila, da je res.

“Kako pa to èutiš?” sem vprašala.

“Ja, noè ima drugaèno barvo,” je rekel, “in èe je èlovek obèutljiv, èuti

plimo sokov v telesu, kar pomeni veè življenjske energije.”

Sedla sem k postelji in rekla: “Èe je tako, se bova pa danes malo dalj

pogovarjala.”

“Prav,” je rekel. “O èem pa?”

“Na primer o knjigah. Povej mi, kaj ti rad bereš.”

Obmolknil je.

Brazda nad njegovim nosnim korenom se je poglobila, oèi je napol

zagrnil z vekami. Èez èas je rekel:

“Ne gre samo za to, da NEKAJ rad bereš. BRANJE samo po sebi je

lahko tisto, kar RAD poèneš – najmanj iz treh vzrokov.

Prvi je življenjska potreba, drugi je sla po znanju, tretji pa je užitek.

Iz potrebe bi moral vsaj vsak izobraženec prebrati Sveto pismo, ker

je koncentrat èloveške modrosti. Sla po znanju ne zagrabi vsakega. Mene je

z vso silo. In veš, kaj sem vse življenje skoraj obsedeno rad prebiral? Lek-

sikone in enciklopedije. Najboljši, najbolj temeljit leksikon je Larousse.

Za užitek sem najraje bral – VSE. Znova in znova pa sem prebiral

gledališke komade. V njih uživaš ne le jezik, ampak tudi èas, prostor, raz-

položenje in gibanje. In v številnih je pogosto veliko humorja. Take sem tudi

najraje prevajal. Veseloigre. Komedije. Da se ljudje lahko zabavajo. Zuck-

mayerjev 'Veseli vinograd' sem celo prestavil na naša dolenjska tla in v našo

govorico; uprizoritev je moèno razburila hinavske, na videz pretirano sra-

mežljive in svetohlinske nazadnjake; dvignila je veliko prahu. A pustiva to,”

je zamahnil z roko.

Obrnil se je k zidu in mi zaželel lahko noè. Tiho sem zaprla vrata za

seboj.

•••

1312

Dolgo sem odlašala in vprašanje, ki me je spremljalo že, odkar sem odrasla,

sem vedno znova odlagala.

A po dveh, treh mesecih je bilo oèitno, da stricu pojemajo moèi. Za-

to sem se nekega popoldneva, ko je že s težavo pojedel vsakdanjo porcijo

èrnih oliv, ki jih je imel posebno rad, opogumila in vprašala. “Stric, povej

mi, prosim, zakaj pravzaprav so te leta 1933, komaj petinštiridesetletnega,

upokojili? Vem, napredno usmerjen in razborit upornik si bil zmeraj, kadar

je šlo za kakršno koli praviènost na katerem koli podroèju. A za tako zgodnjo

upokojitev si že moral ušpièiti nekaj veèjega.”

Kar planilo je iz njega:

“To, vidiš, napravi pa politika. Privlaèna in nepogrešljiva je. Ko se te

dotakne, ne moreš mimo nje. In postaviš se na tisto stran, za katero ti tvoja

vest pravi, da je pravièna.

Zaèelo se je s šestojanuarsko diktaturo. V tem èasu so hoteli okrniti

ljubljansko univerzo. Nepopolno medicinsko fakulteto so hoteli ukiniti, filo-

zofsko pa odcepiti od univerze. Sledile so študentske demonstracije in višek

je bila svetosavska demonstracija leta 1932. Jaz sem bil takrat univerzitetni

tajnik in – saj me poznaš – na strani študentov. Ob tradicionalni proslavi na

univerzi sem jih podprl, ko so razobesili prepovedano slovensko zastavo.

Policija je demonstracije zatrla, mene pa so upokojili.”

Utihnil je in se zamislil. Èez èas je dodal:

“Veš, univerzitetni senat je trikrat poskušal doseèi mojo rehabilita-

cijo. Brez uspeha. Rehabilitiran sem bil šele leta 1946. Postal sem šef znan-

stvene pisarne pri SAZU. To sem še zdaj in bom, kot kaže, do konca.”

Èas je tekel in najini pogovori so postajali zmeraj redkejši in krajši.

Potem le še stiski rok, dokler ni tistega mirnega majskega veèera

(27. 5. 1960) dr. Janez Oražem sklonjen prišel iz bolniške sobe, mi molèe

pokimal in mi stisnil roko. Oba sva molèe sprejela neizbežno. In preden je

stric dokonèno odšel iz realnega sveta v irealnost, me je prešinilo: Ne more

vendar oditi praznih rok! Skoraj podzavestno sem vzela škarje, odrezala

košèek grobe lanene rjuhe in mu ga skrivaj potisnila v krsto.

Odleglo mi je. Zazdelo se mi je, da je od vsega, kar sem storila zanj,

to najpomembnejše.

Epilog

Ko sem zakljuèila z doživetim, me je prevzel nemir. Na vsak naèin sem že-

lela o stricu in okolišèinah, v katerih je živel, zvedeti kaj veè.

Zaèela sem iskati in res sem izvrtala nekaj stvari; najveè sem od-

krila v papirnati zapušèini svoje matere. Zdaj vem. Penati so bili najpo-

membnejša drušèina slovenskih intelektualcev med obema svetovnima

vojnama. Med njimi so bili univerzitetni profesorji, glasbeniki, literati,

gledališèniki in seveda jezikoslovci vseh mogoèih smeri. Vsi so bili vneti

narodnjaki, goreli so tudi za vse splošnoveljavne èloveške vrednote. Znali

1514

so se šaliti in veseliti, a tudi resno razpravljati in glasno zagovarjati svoja

stališèa.

Poliglot – obvladal je vse svetovne jezike in še nekaj drugih, živi

leksikon, duhovit humorist, publicist, prevajalec in estet, pa tudi jedek

komentator, v privatnem življenju pa skromen samotar, dr. Matej Šmalc, je

bil med najbolj stalnimi èlani te drušèine.

Njegova specialnost je bila fonetika. In ljubil je svoje nareèje. Poleg

njega so bili še literarni zgodovinarji Ivan Prijatelj, Avgust Pirjevec, Joža

Glonar, patolog in anatom Janez Pleènik, nevropsihiater Alfred Šerko, bio-

log Pavel Grošelj, pesnik in dramaturg Pavel Golia, pesniki Oton Župan-

èiè, Igo Gruden in Fran Albreht, pisatelj Ciril Kosmaè, glasbeniki Marjan

Kozina, Niko Štritof (direktor Opere), Slavko Osterc, pisatelj in kritik Juš

Kozak in še nekaj bolj ali manj stalnih oziroma priložnostnih èlanov, med

njimi vèasih celo pisateljica Alma Karlin in pesnica Lili Novy. In še in še.

Skoraj vsa kulturna elita.

Vsi so bili goreèi privrženci slovenstva. Razpravljali so o splošno-

kulturnih, literarnih, etiènih in pereèih politiènih vprašanjih. Debate so bile

pogosto zelo živahne, polemiène. Pleènik in Šerko sta, podprta z razgovori

pri penatskem omizju, poslovenila latinske anatomske izraze.

Tomaž Bizilj, takratni gostilnièar “Pri kolovratu”, je skrbno pazil, da

se priložnostni gostje niso usedli za mizo pri peèi. Bila je rezervirana za

penate. Pri njej so se zbirali ves èas, dokler je drušèina obstajala.

•••

Jaz sem strica Matevža še v njegovi aktivni dobi natanèneje spoznala, ko

sem študirala za izpit iz paleontologije. Predavanja – bogu bodi potoženo –

so bila skrajno dolgoèasna in poslušala sem jih le, kolikor je bilo najbolj

nujno. Ker nismo takrat imeli nobenega uèbenika, sem hodila ta predmet

študirat v NUK. Knjižnica pa je bila samo luèaj oddaljena od strièevega

delovnega mesta. Znanstvene pisarne SAZU na Novem trgu št. 2. In tako

sem prviè skoraj podzavestno na poti iz NUK-a zavila k njemu.

Bil je veselo preseneèen.

“Od kod pa ti prihajaš?” je vprašal.

Povedala sem mu.

In ko je izvedel, zakaj hodim v NUK, je vprašal:

“Kaj si pa danes preštudirala?”

“Razvojno linijo polža mureksa,” sem rekla.

Takrat se je utrgal plaz. Kar stresel je iz rokava – mogoèe in nemo-

goèe stvari o tem morskem polžku. O tem, kako so jih lovili in gojili – zaradi

škrlata seveda. Zelo natanèno o tem, kako so to barvilo pridobivali, ves

postopek barvanja svile z njim, razcvet in poti tihotapstva s škrlatom in

antiène cene v denarju in zlatu.

“In ti vse kar takole veš, èeprav to ni tvoja stroka?” sem vprašala.

Zasmejal se je. “Ja,” je rekel. “Vse je stvar zanimanja. Zanima me

prav vse, kar se je in kar se na svetu dogaja.”

“In vse si zapomniš?”

“Tudi to je stvar zanimanja. Kar te res zanima, si zapomniš.”

1716

Tako je šlo z mojim študijem paleontologije naprej. Ko sem iz NUK-a

prišla k njemu, je najprej vprašal:

“No, kaj je bilo pa danes na vrsti?”

Ko sem povedala, je sledila natanèna in zanimiva zgodba.

Študij paleontologije pri stricu se je moèno poznal pri mojem izpitu.

Profesor, ki je verjetno opazil, da sem bila pri predavanjih bolj redka gostja,

je bil oèitno preseneèen nad mojim znanjem.

Spominskemu zapisu o dr. Mateju Šmalcu pa bi nekaj manjkalo, èe

ne bi omenila, kar sem odkrila o njegovem literarnem ustvarjanju. Uradni

podatki o tem niso popolni. Njegova bibliografija izpred druge svetovne

vojne ni zbrana. V tem èasu je precej pisal pod psevdonimi. Leta 1920 je

kot Ben Akiba pisal o politièni usmerjenosti Ivana Tavèarja, napisal je za-

nimive študije o heraldiki, skrit pod psevdonimom Spectator je pisal o ver-

sajski mirovni pogodbi, v revije je pisal o angleških in francoskih literatih in

prevajal literarna dela iz številnih svetovnih jezikov. Kot šef znanstvene

pisarne SAZU je med drugim organiziral predavanja tujih znanstvenikov v

Sloveniji, slovenskih pa v drugih državah. V tujih leksikonih in enciklopedi-

jah je zasledoval objave iz slovenskega in jugoslovanskega prostora, zbiral

gesla iz teh tem in poroèal o njih.

A dr. Matej Šmalc ni bil ne èastihlepen ne lakomen. Javna prizna-

nja mu niso bila mar. Vse, kar je delal, je poèel iz zanimanja in ker ga je

veselilo in zadovoljevalo.

Ljubljanska drušèina penatov in z njimi seveda tudi dr. Matej

Šmalc, v mladih letih v Ribnici znan kot Zalarjev Matevž, še èakajo na delo

zagnanega literarnozgodovinskega raziskovalca. Upajmo, da se je že rodil.

Morda celo v Ribnici.

VIRI

1. Biografije in bibliografije znanstvenih in strokovnih sodelavcev SAZU, Ljubljana 1976.

2. Slovenski biografski leksikon (digitalni zapis)

3. Naši razgledi 11. junija 1960

Marjan Kozina: Bom prašal Šmalca

Vladimir Bartol: Dr. Matej Šmalc

4. Enciklopedija Slovenije

5. Josip Vidmar: Obrazi

6. Igo Gruden: Dvanajsta ura

1918

I was told about the first part of my uncle's life by my mother; this is what she told me:

September 1888. A baby had just been born into the Zalar family. A boy.

“He arrived a bit earlier than expected. He said himself at a later time half jokingly that this was the case because of his excessive curiosity. He was christened 'Matevž'. Where we were from, almost every firstborn boy was back then named after his father and every firstborn girl after her mother.”

The new mom was back at work a few short days after giving birth, doing household chores, taking care of the child and helping her husband in the workshop. In the years after, she gave birth to eleven more children, but only four of them survived: Matevž, Polde, Štefka and Tone.

Matevž was a smart, very curious, headstrong and stubborn child. It did not take his teachers very long to discover his remarkable talent and desire for knowledge and his parents soon realised it was essential for Matevž to carry on with his education.

Initially he went to the grammar school in Ljubljana, however, on account of his zealous support for the Slovene nation, his progressive ideas and defiance he was expelled from all Austrian secondary schools after completing his third year at school. He therefore relocated to Sušak, where he completed grammar school and graduated with distinction.

That same year, Matevž's six-year old sister Pavla died of measles and Matevž, who was hit hard by her death, was seriously thinking about studying medicine. He said himself that he was interested in doing research. However, his Italian and French teacher at the grammar school in Sušak discovered Matevž's truly extraordinary talent for languages and he per-

21

Tatjana Angerer

MY UNCLE

Matevž Šmalc

sisted until he persuaded Matevž into deciding on Romance studies. He was the one who paved Matevž's way to the university in Florence. After the first semester, Matevž had to join the army and as soon as he completed his military service, he went to study in Vienna.

He did this out of curiosity. He said that he was familiar with Flo-rence and he now wanted to get to know Vienna and the alma mater of almost all of his contemporary Slovene intellectuals.

At that time, the news from the French consulate spread like fire among the students about the opportunity of studying French at the Sorbonne, for which a scholarship would be awarded. However, to get it, it was necessary to pass a test.

Matevž gave it a go and passed the test with flying colours. He was given the scholarship straight away and he left for Paris to study at the Sorbonne. At a later time, he went back to Vienna, where he completed his studies with a doctorate in 1915.

After the commencement, he returned home to wind down and met up with some of his friends and acquaintances again. One of them was Mimi Pakiž, according to my mother the most beautiful girl in Ribnica at the time.

Matevž fell head over heels in love with her and they got married not long after. He once said smilingly: “Mimi is France Prešeren's Urška and I'm the water man*.”

However, their marriage lasted only a short time. A mere four years later, Mimi died. Of tuberculosis, they said.

* The Water Man is the first Slovene ballad, written by Slovenia's best known poet France Prešeren. It is a narration about Urška, a flirt from Ljubljana that ended in the hands of a handsome man who happened to be a water man.

Matevž never got married again. He lived a solitary, bohemian life. He stayed in restaurants and hotels. While in Ljubljana, it was Hotel Slon

that he stayed at the longest, and as for eating lunch or dinner, he would often go to the well-known restaurant Šestica.

•••

The official data on his employment and work reflects his restless spirit and at the same time the extent of his competence and his broad knowledge.

He was wounded during the First World War and spent a lot of time afterwards in various hospitals getting treatment. In 1918, he was appointed the education-propagation officer at the National Council in Ljubljana and then left for Geneva as a correspondent only a year later. While there, he drew up an open letter to the US President W. Wilson together with his colleagues regarding the coastal region of Slovenia. In 1919, he became the press officer at the Provincial Government for Slovenia, then the chief editor of Klagenfurter Nachrichten and the editor of Draupost in Maribor; he was an interpreter for the boundary delimitation commission (Yugoslavia - Italy - Austria) and after that the Secretary of the University of Ljubljana, until he was forced to retire in 1933 as a punishment for ha- ving supported students during the student demonstrations. He then left to Paris, where he was involved in preparing Slovenian broadcasts as the editor and presenter. After being rehabilitated in 1946, he became an asso-ciate professor and manager of the scientific office of the Slovenian Acade-my of Sciences and Arts, a member of several committees (on terminology, the Dictionary of the Standard Slovene Language, the etymology dictionary, the Slovene Normative Guide).

2322

He participated in preparation of the English edition of Venezia Giulia for the Paris Peace Conference.

Throughout this time, he was very active publications-wise: he did translations (for theatre in particular), wrote essays, commentaries and discussions.

•••

My uncle spent his old age at our place. And so we had time to spend to-gether, which previously, during his active period, he had had little of for any of us.

I felt overloaded, but at the same time privileged. He would tell me about his life, about his views of life and would often spice his stories up by adding original, witty and sometimes very complicated remarks, which, unfortunately, I am not able to repeat word for word.

Thus, I will tell what I can remember in my own words.

He came empty-handed. Without any luggage. The burden that made him come was inside of him. But he would never talk about it. I felt he did not want to and therefore I never asked him about his illness. He was as patient as it gets.

He never complained. Only his hands would give the pain away. When things got hard, they were trembling.

When I was getting his bed ready behind the partition in the room that was 'a dining room for festive meals' and at the same time a guest room, he said all of a sudden:

“You'll give me those sheets, those that belonged to our mother, won't you? The linen ones, which our mother sowed flax in the field for, then span it and also sewed the sheets herself. The only thing she didn't do on her own was weaving, she had them woven in Loški Potok. Štefa, your mother, still has the sheets and she would always give them to me whenever I slept at your place”.

I knew this. My mum, who was in hospital at a time for quite a while, had told me to do so specifically.

I used one to cover the mattress and put the other one under the cotton blanket cover.

He lay down satisfied and kept stroking the linen sheets, which I felt were quite coarse, with both of his hands for a long time; but I understood. The flax threads bore traces, unmistakable fingerprints of his mother, my grandmother. The otherwise ardent supporter of numerous new ideas was also a faithful follower of the Slovene tradition.

One evening, when I sat down next to his bed, tired after a long day, he grabbed me by the hand and I could feel he needed to talk.

I said before I could stop myself: “Uncle, you're a linguist, come on, tell me a bit about the languages you know.'

His eyes lit up, the atmosphere lightened with some sort of optimism and it felt like the room had lost any boundaries; it expanded into my uncle's linguistic universe.

“Languages are like living creatures,” he said speaking slowly. 'The root words constitute the genes of languages. When you look at the roots closely, you can uncover linguistic kinship. And the nation which was going its separate ways would put various affixes onto the roots, depending on the

2524

nature of the people, their moods and the circumstances they were living in. And each individual group of people pronounced the sounds in their own way, gave them their own distinctive note and put the accent as they deemed appropriate. This is how languages were created.”

He continued: “Some languages are self-confident, very indepen-dent and with almost no foreign influences, just like their 'creators'. These are mostly ancient languages. For example Sanskrit. And also German,” he added after thinking about it for a bit. “Sanskrit is certainly unsurpassed in its uniqueness,” he emphasised. My uncle was the only official sworn translator for this language at the time, according to my mother.

After a short pause, he added:

“Young languages are less self-confident, yet they show the cha-racter of their people in a much more obvious way. Turkish language, for example, is feisty, Serbian is epic, and our mother tongue” – he said this in an especially tender way – “is lyrical.”

He fell silent and I could see he was tired. So we called it a night.

I turned off the light, the room shrunk back into being a sickroom and I left quietly.

A fair bit of time passed, days spent doing the work and filled with everyday concerns and problems.

At the time, my uncle's childhood friend and our family doctor, Dr Janez Oražem, was of great help.

While I was at work, he would keep my uncle company, often much longer than was necessary. They chatted in an authentic Ribnica dialect and reminisced about the bygone times.

When he was leaving one afternoon, standing at the door, doctor

Oražem whispered: “Talking really does Matevž a lot of good. Do think of things to talk about and let him tell stories.”

And so these sporadic chats of ours become more or less regular. But he did not like talking about himself. What he did tell me, it was only because I had managed to get it out of him using wiles. As for anything else, he loved talking about it, often in a very witty way. Of course, I don't remember all of our conversations. Quite a few of them have faded and disappeared from my memory. Others are fragmented and unfinished; but there are a few that are firmly anchored in my brain. And these are the ones I am going to write down.

One evening our conversation turned to the Slovene Normative Guide. “Wasn't it that in 1950 all of you Normative Guide editors were awarded the Prešeren Award as a team?” I asked him.

He waved his hand dismissively. He would not talk about it all. The only thing he did tell me with regard to preparing the normative guide was an anecdote about how they had argued for a long time about how to spell 'abonma' (the Slovenian expression for a season ticket) in Slovenian. He – a distinguished expert in Romance languages – was in favour of the 'abon-man' spelling version, whereas everybody else was against it. And so the 'abonma' spelling version won.

“But us, the Penates, as we were called, then devoted the whole evening to this word in the inn 'At the Spinning Wheel', where we were in the habit of meeting, and the whole discussion was extremely witty. Almost like a theater performance,” he said and his face lit up at the thought.

“Do tell me something about the Penates,” I begged him. “Why did you actually choose this name?”

2726

“Do you know who the Penates were?” he answered by asking me a question.

“I do know. Roman household deities.”

“Not enough,” he said abruptly.

“They were the deities of the storeroom, where all sorts of supplies were stored, and at the same time they were also the deities whose chief duty along with the Vestals was to keep alight the eternal fire in the Roman temple of Vesta. Do you understand now why we have chosen this particular name?”

“From everything you've just told me, it's not difficult to under-stand,” I replied. “Who was – besides you – member of the Penates?”

“I won't name every single one of them, but you must know the biologist Pavel Grošelj, Professor Alfred Šerko, Dr Janez Pleènik and also Oton Zupanèiè and Igo Gruden. We were a motley crew. There was a table reserved for us at in the inn 'At the Spinning Wheel' at all times. Whoever came, sat down there and waited for some others to come too. If you had time to spare and felt like it, you went there. One day it was this one, another day someone else.”

“What did you talk about during your meetings?”

He laughed: “About everything, anything that had been weighing us down, accumulating in our brain penes (penus, Latin 'a repository for provisions'). You can imagine these were very diverse topics, considering the different disciplines, orientation and spiritual preferences of the members, as well as the current affairs at home and elsewhere in the world.”

“But have you ever written anything down?”

“Why would we?”

“These were discussions for our own pleasure, not for the public,” he added.

And then we called it a night.

•••

“Don't turn on the light, “ he asked me when I entered the room.

“It's full moon today, isn't it,” he half asked, half realised himself. He did not even wait for me to answer.

“I can feel it,” he said. “I always feel it.”

I looked at the calendar and found this to be true to my astonish-ment.

“How can you feel this?” I asked.

“Well, the night has got a different colour,” he said, “and if you are sensitive, you can feel the tide of the juices inside your body, which means more life energy.”

I sat down next to his bed and said: “If this is so, we'll talk a bit longer today.”

“Okay,” he said. “What about?”

“About books, for example. Tell me what you like reading.”

He fell silent.

The furrow over his nose ridge deepened, the eyelids half covering his eyes. After a while he said:

“It is not about loving to read SOMETHING. READING itself can be what you like doing – for at least three reasons.

2928

The first reason is the intrinsic need, the second one the desire for knowledge and the third one pleasure.

Based on the need, every educated person should read the Bible, because this is where human wisdom is concentrated. Not everyone is driven by lust for knowledge. But I myself couldn't have been more. And you know what I have loved reading all of my life almost obsessively? Lexicons and encyclopaedias. The best, the most thorough lexicon of all is Larousse.

And as for pleasure, I liked reading most…well, JUST ABOUT ANYTHING. Again and again I would read theatre pieces. Reading them you can enjoy not only the language, but also the time, the space, the mood and the movement. And in many of them there is a lot of humour. These are the kinds of texts I loved translating most. Farces. Comedies. So that people can have some fun. I even changed the setting of Zuckmayer's 'The Merry Vineyard' to Dolenjska and changed the language to the local dialect; the performance greatly upset the hypocritical, seemingly overly shy and sanctimonious conservatives; it caused quite a stir. But let's leave it at this,” he waved his hand dimissively.

He turned to face the wall and wished me good night. I quietly closed the door behind me.

•••

I kept putting off the question, which had been with me for as long as I was I had been an adult.

But after two or three months, it was obvious that the uncle was growing weaker. So one afternoon, when he was already having difficulty

eating his everyday portion of black olives, which he loved so much, I mustered up the courage and asked. “Uncle, tell me, please, why you were forced to retire in 1933, when you were only forty-five? I know, you've always been a progressive and hot-tempered rebel whenever any sort of justice in any field was concerned. But for retirement at such an early age you must have done something much bigger.”

He burst out:

“This, you see, is what politics does. It is appealing and indis-pensable. When it touches you, you cannot go past it. And then you act in favour of whichever side your conscience tells you it's decent.

It all started with The 6 January Dictatorship. At the time, they wanted to trim down the University of Ljubljana. They wanted to abolish the incomplete Faculty of Medicine, and to separate the Faculty of Arts from the university. This was followed by student demonstrations, which reached a climax with the Svetosavlje demonstration in 1932. I was the university secretary at the time and I – you know me – aligned myself with the students. At the traditional celebration at the university I supported them when they hung out the prohibited Slovenian flag. The police suppressed the demonstrations and I was retired.”

He fell silent and pondered for a bit. After a while, he added:

“You know, the university senate tried to rehabilitate me three times. To no avail. I wasn't rehabilitated until 1946. I became the head of the scientific office at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which I still am, and – by the looks of it – will stay to the end.”

Time went by and our conversations were getting rarer and shorter.

Towards the end the only thing left was squeezing one another's

3130

hands, until that peaceful evening in May (27.5.1960), when doctor Janez Oražem came walking out of the sickroom with his shoulders bowed, nodded silently at me and shook my hand. We both tacitly accepted the inevitable. And before my uncle finally went from the real world into unreality, it occurred to me: I mustn't let him leave empty-handed! Almost unconsciously, I took the scissors, cut a piece of the coarse linen sheets and secretly put it into the coffin.

I was relieved. I felt that of all the things I had ever done for him, this was the most important one.

Epilogue

When I processed everything that I had experienced, I became restless. I wanted to find out more about my uncle and the circumstances of his life at any cost.

I started researching and I did manage to dig up a few things; I discovered most from my mother's paper legacy. Now I know. The Penates were the most important group of Slovenian intellectuals in the interwar years. They included university professors, musicians, writers, theatricals and, of course, linguists of every possible movement. All of them were en-thusiastic patriots and also avid supporters of general human values. They would crack jokes and enjoy themselves, but also have serious debates and vigorously defend their positions.

A polyglot – he mastered all the world's major languages and then some, a walking encyclopaedia, a very witty person, a publicist, translator and aesthete, as well as a caustic commentator, and in his personal life a modest recluse, all of this was Dr Matevž Šmalc, one of the most permanent members of the Penates group.

His area of expertise was phonetics. And he loved his own dialect. Besides him the group members included literary historians Ivan Prijatelj, Avgust Pirjevec, Joža Glonar, the pathologist and anatomist Janez Pleènik, the neuropsychiatrist Alfred Šerko, biologist Pavel Grošelj, the poet and stage director Pavel Golia, poets Oton Županèiè, Igo Gruden and Fran Albreht, the writer Ciril Kosmaè, the musicians Marjan Kozina, Niko Štritof (the managing director of the Opera), Slavko Osterc, the writer and critic Juš Kozak and some more or less permanent or ad hoc members, at times even the writer Alma Karlin and the poetess Lili Novy. And many others. Almost the whole cultural elite.

All of them were ardent supporters of the Slovene national move-ment. They would discuss culture-related, literary, ethical and pressing political issues. Their discussions were often very lively and polemical. Pleènik and Šerko, encouraged by the conversations held among the Penates, translated the Latin anatomy terms into Slovene.

Thomaž Bizilj, the then innkeeper of 'At the Spinning Wheel', was very vigilant in making sure that no other occasional guests would sit down at the table next to the masonry stove. It was reserved for the Penates. They would get together at this table regularly for as long as the group existed.

•••

3332

I had got to know Uncle Matevž better even some time before that, during his active years, when I was studying for my paleontology exam. The lectures were unfortunately awfully boring, so I only attended them whenever this was absolutely necessary. As we had no textbook at the time, I would study at the National and University Library. The library was only a stone's throw away from my uncle's job, the Scientific Office of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts on Novi trg 2. And leaving the library the first time around, I almost unconsciously ended up at my uncles' office.

He was pleasantly surprised.

“Where have you been?” he asked.

I told him.

And when he found out why I was in the habit of going to the library, he asked:

“What have you been studying today?”

“The evolution of the murex sea snail,” I told him.

And then there was no stopping him. He tossed off all sorts of probable and improbable things about the sea snails. About how they were caught and raised – because of the royal purple, of course. A lot of detailed information about how the dye was obtained, about the whole process of dyeing silk with it, about the heyday of smuggling and the smuggling routes, as well as about ancient prices in cash and gold.

“And you know all of this just like that, although this is not your field of expertise?” I asked him.

He laughed. “Yes,” he said.

“Everything is a matter of having an interest in it. I'm interested in anything there is and everything that's happening in the world.”

“And you memorise all of it?”

“Again, this is a matter of interest. Whatever you are really interes-ted in you keep in your mind.”

And so I carried on with my paleontology studies. Whenever I went to see him at his office on the way from the library, he would first ask:

“So, what have you been working on today?”

When I told him, he would always tell me an interesting story in great detail.

Learning paleontology from my uncle really affected my exam results. The professor, who probably noticed I had not been attending the lectures all that often, was obviously surprised by my knowledge.

An important part would be missing from my memories of Dr Matevž ŠmaIc if I did not mention what I have discovered about the results of his literary endeavours. Official data about it is by no means complete. His bibliography from the pre-Second World War period has not been compiled. During that time, he was using a number of pseudonyms. In 1920, he wrote about the political orientation of Ivan Tavèar as Ben Akiba, he wrote some interesting studies on heraldry, under the pseudonym Spectator he wrote about the Treaty of Versailles, he wrote about the English and French writers for various journals and he translated literary works from a number of world languages. As the head of the scientific office of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts he, inter alia, organized lectures

3534

by foreign scientists in Slovenia, and by Slovenian scientists in other coun-tries. He followed the publications of contributions by authors from Slove-nia and Yugoslavia in foreign lexicons and encyclopaedias, collected the headwords from the topics discussed and reported on them.

However, he was neither overly ambitious, nor was he greedy. He did not care much for public recognition. Everything he did was purely out of interest, because it brought him pleasure and satisfaction.

The Ljubljana-based Penates group, including Dr Matevž Šmalc, in Ribnica once known as Zalarjev Matevž, are still waiting to be resear-ched by an enthusiastic researcher of literary history. Hopefully he or she has already been born. Perhaps even in Ribnica.

REFERENCES

1. Biografije in bibliografije znanstvenih in strokovnih sodelavcev SAZU, Ljubljana 1976.

2. Slovenski biografski leksikon (digital copy)

3. Naši razgledi 11 June 1960

Marjan Kozina: Bom prašal Šmalca

Vladimir Bartol: Dr Matej Šmalc

4. Enciklopedija Slovenije

5. Josip Vidmar: Obrazi

6. Igo Gruden: Dvanajsta ura

36

Tatjana AngererMatevž Šmalc – moj stric /

Izdajatelj: Muzej Ribnica /

Založil: JZ Rokodelski center Ribnica – zavod za rokodelstvo, muzejsko in galerijsko dejavnost /

Zanj: / Polona Rigler Grm

Spremno besedilo: / mag. Marina Gradišnik /

Jezikovni pregled: / Petra Debelak, Tanja Debeljak, Tonèka Stanonik

Prevod v angleški jezik: / Mateja Žuraj

Oblikovanje in prelom: / Mateja Goršiè

Tisk: / Linear s.p.

Naklada: 300 izvodov /

Publikacijo finanèno omogoèila Obèina Ribnica in Ministrstvo za kulturo RS. /

Ribnica, 2014

Matevž Šmalc – My Uncle

Published by: Museum of Ribnica

Published by: Ribnica Handicraft Centre – Institute for Handicraft, Museum and Gallery Activities

Represented by:

Preface: MA

Proofreading:

English translation:

Graphic design and page layout:

Printed by:

Print run: 300 copies

The publication has been funded by the Municipality of Ribnica and the Ministry of Culture.

MUZEJ RIBNICAM U S E U M O F R I B N I C A